WATCH: Video shows French President being 'slapped by wife'
In pictures initially captured by the Associated Press, Emmanuel Macron's wife, Brigitte, appears to be slapping her husband.
The French President is currently embarking on a Southeast Asian tour, but his trip did not start as well as he would have hoped.
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Upon arrival in Vietnam on Sunday, 27 May, Macron was caught in a controversial and compromising position.
Footage shot by the Associated Press news agency in Hanoi shows Macron's plane door opening to reveal him.
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His wife Brigitte's arms emerge from the left of the open doorway. She places both hands on her husband's face and shoves it.
The President appears startled but quickly recovers and turns to wave through the open door. She remains concealed by the aircraft, making it impossible to see her facial expression or body language.
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The couple proceed down the staircase for the official welcome by Vietnamese officials, though Brigitte does not take her husband's offered arm.
The video clip circulated rapidly online, particularly by accounts habitually hostile to the French leader.
Watch the video below:
JUST IN: 🇫🇷 French President Macron's wife slaps him in face. pic.twitter.com/Cl9idDeWz0
— BRICS News (@BRICSinfo) May 26, 2025
The video has made waves on social media.
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The President has addressed speculation as to what led to the incident.
AFP writes that Macron's office initially denied the authenticity of the images before they were confirmed as genuine. A close associate of the President later described the incident as a couple's harmless "squabble".
Another member of his entourage played down the significance of the incident:
It was a moment when the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip by joking around. It's a moment of togetherness. No more was needed to feed the mills of the conspiracy theorists.
Macron has since also dismissed any domestic dispute claims.
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They were "joking as we often do", he told reporters in Hanoi, adding that other videos had been misinterpreted as showing him sharing a bag of cocaine or confronting the Turkish president. "None of these are true," he said, and "everyone needs to calm down".
According to AFP, President Macron arrived in Vietnam for the first leg of a tour of Southeast Asia, where he aims to pitch his country as a reliable alternative partner to the United States and China.
During his six-day trip -- which includes stops in Indonesia and Singapore -- Macron will underscore his respect for the sovereignty of Asian countries "caught between the United States and China", a presidential aide said during a pre-tour briefing.
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Main image courtesy of @BRICSinfo/X